Envisioning African Intersex: Challenging Colonial and Racist Legacies in South African Medicine

by Amanda Lock Swarr

Since the 1600s, travelers, scientists, and doctors have claimed that “hermaphroditism” and intersex are disproportionately common among black South Africans. In Envisioning African Intersex Amanda Lock Swarr debunks this claim by interrogating contemporary intersex medicine and demonstrating its indivisibility from colonial ideologies and scientific racism. Tracing the history of racialized research that underpins medical and scientific premises of gendered bodies, Swarr analyzes decolonial actions by intersex South Africans from the 1990s to the present, centering the work of organizers such as Sally Gross, the first openly intersex activist in Africa and a global pioneer of intersex legislation. Swarr also explores African social media activism that advocates for intersex justice and challenges the mistreatment of South African Olympian Caster Semenya. Throughout, Swarr shows how activists displace doctors’ impositions to fashion self-representation. By unseating colonial visions of gender, intersex South Africans are actively disrupting medical violence, decolonizing gender binaries, and inciting policy changes.

All author royalties from Envisioning African Intersex will be donated to Intersex South Africa.

Genres: Nonfiction, Intersex, LGBT

248 pages, Hardcover

First published March 8, 2023

Reviews

[Yuna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Littlebookterror · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not entirely sure if the rating is for the book itself or more my experience with it - I've come back to this several times as I am reading other nonfiction, intersex books and when I am discussing related things like medical racism.

[Margery Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

hear about this on the Science podcast series on gender. So important and upsetting. Highly recommend

[Martyn Beeny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Envisioning African Intersex: Challenging Colonial and Racist Legacies in South African Medicine is a powerful and meticulously researched examination of intersex histories, activism, and medical practice in South Africa. Amanda Lock Swarr skillfully uncovers the enduring influence of colonialism and scientific racism while highlighting the voices and leadership of intersex activists advocating for justice and self representation.

Insightful, compassionate, and deeply thought provoking, the book makes an important contribution to gender studies, African studies, medical humanities, and human rights scholarship. It is essential reading for scholars, students, and advocates.

[han · Rating 5 out of 5]

read for class